Book #29

Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom

"In the beginning there was a question. Will you do my eulogy?' As is often the case with faith, I thought I was being asked a favor. In truth, I was being given one..."
After reading Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, I have since sworn that Mitch Albom is one of my favourite authors. He has such a propensity to tug at your heartstrings and make you fall in love with him, his characters, and his stories.

I was a bit disappointed with Have a Little Faith. Yes, Albom gave me all of his usual  inspirational and thought-provoking nudges, but this time they didn't resonate as loudly as they normally do. Although the message certainly is touching and worthwhile, and as with all Albom novels I cried at the end, the novel seemed to me as though it were trying too hard. There were too many inspirational moments, and too much sentimentalism. I sound like the worse kind of person, but this is how I felt.

As this is a true story, and a nice one, I am loathe to be too critical, but I wanted this to ring bells and make me smile, cry, and shout from the rooftops after I turned the last page. Yes, it was a nice little read, but what worries me is that if I had read this before any of Albom's other novels; I never would have tried them all.

I have a problem with religion, in that I don't believe in it. I have an unrivalled respect for those who do, but it will just never work for me. I think this may be why I had such a problem with this book. It was entirely centred on faith, religion and spirituality. It left me with no inspirational motivation to take away with me, and in fact left me feeling quite hollow. A religious person would take more from this than I did. I just found it a quaint little story, and (although I feel terrible for saying so) a contrived Tuesdays with Morrie. 

I'm quite unsure whether I've missed a trick here, but Albom used a very curious method of punctuating his dialogue in the novel. When he himself was speaking to someone he would not use quotation marks. Everyone else was worthy of these, just not Albom himself. I couldn't quite work it out, and it just annoyed me greatly.

I am very underwhelmed and disappointed.